There was more than a hint of a looming, defining moment for 2026 for the Eels through Round 7. A disastrous outing against the Titans had them at, if not leaning over, the precipice. They needed something special amidst a ludicrous injury toll that is only spiraling with every passing game. With the celebrations and draping of the 40th anniversary of the 1986 premiership they delivered a statement win against their fancied arch-rivals in the Canterbury Bulldogs.
Sixties and Forty20 suffer through the whiplash of perhaps the most embarrassing Parramatta effort in recent seasons just last week followed by one of the legitimately all-time great displays of courage and pure grit from the Blue & Gold as they rose above a killer injury toll to deliver staggering haymaker after haymaker. It was the very definition of Parra Proud.
Join the boys live from 7:30PM as they break down all the key moments from the brilliant win, unfortunately including even more injury concerns heading into Round 8.
Well done lads, you showed you have great pride in the badge in front of parra legends, after some shocking performances this year, we hope this is a sign of things to come
Kudos to the coaches and team. That was a mighty effort to get a win (and a convincing one at that). Will be a good boost to their confidence and now manly looks gettable without turbo.
Congrats to Saxon on debuting – worked hard and went after it. Araz was solid for 2nd game as well
What a remarkable attitude change.Putting the right players in the right positions made a hell of a difference . Guymer and Williams were outstanding. Young fellas really stood up. No six again until the 24th minute, makes it a different game. This is what makes you follow the blue and golds.
Very proud of the entire team and extended coaching staff here; backs to the wall stuff.
They showed that if you do the simple things well for the 80 mins you can win; think we looked more direct too. Great result….
Shame if we lose another two players – Smith and Volk?
Cannot pick just one player but all deserve the spoils here – well done and I hope we can get one or two back. Our leaders all aimed up which is great and is just what we need each week.
Smith will be hard to fill and hearing sternum.
Oops i meant to put MILO not Moses.
You had me going for a bit. Very cheeky Milo!
Thanks John, but I have tried walking on water (The Entrance channel) and failed miserbaly and dropped my pie in the process!
It’s a tough walk these days. Council spending huge to keep it open.
All because councillors thought they new better than mother nature
Well done.
Finally Ryles decided to play Williams on the edge and Walker on the bench and what happened?
He doesn’t want to play juniors but Twidle and now Saxon Pryke comes in and kills it.
Poor old Saxon was completely spent at the end there.
I wasn’t a big Naraz fan but he was huge.
The biggest difference was that the referees have obviously been told to wind the 6 against back and what a difference it made !
Let’s hope it never comes back.
Wouldn’t say its a case of Ryles not wanting to play juniors, ya can’t just throw them all in in the same week and Pryke, twidle and nanva all don’t have NRL contracts or Dev contracts as far as has been reported which meant all 3 needed clearance from the NRL to play.
You work hard and things go your way we got exactly what we deserved today because we completely out worked Canterbury.
I hope that the titans was a final line in the sand moment in terms of non negotiable effort.
While we’re riddled with injuries we’ll get outclassed from time to time but if the effort and desires there we’ll push most teams
This is why we follow the Eels. The crazy unpredictability of them. The euphoria of the win. The mad anxiety that it is just possible they will blow a 20 point lead with 10 minutes to go. On this occasion they were fabulous, all is forgiven and hope blossoms again.
The old hands were great and the new boys had terrific moments. Nothing quite like a win against the Dogs. Unless it’s one against Manly. Or maybe the Riff. For the most part, loved the defence.
A victory to savour for a week! Hey boys, how about two in a row.
I’ll take back my questioning about the coach. That’s what a coach can do ….. should do. Get a team up.
Well done Parra!
Maybe Mitch should learn from today’s Challenge. I bet he will.
Great effort … they silenced the Bulldogs!!!
Running hard and tackling hard for 80 minutes takes you a long way.
The turnaround in effort was remarkable from last week. It was good to see such a response, obviously for the result, but more importantly to show they have pride in the jersey. It was an effort win that can only happen when a team is committed to each other.
Ryles had a good week – Walker off the bench and Williams on an edge were outstanding. JDB also did his role in the first 20.
Best game from Junior for a while and also Penisini.
Time to go again, this is now the standard.
Pryke 100 % tackle efficiency; Mataele 100% tackle efficiency and some very heavy jits; Williams 97% tackle efficiency and over 50 tackles; great effort. We have some contract situations to sort out. Great to see Ron Volkman take his chance
Good to see a gusty performance. Last weekend was a stain on the club and on those involved.
You don’t expect clincial play for 80 minutes with so many players moving around due to injury. so it was good just to see a commited performance.
Thankfully the Dogs barely showed up with Kikau putting in 5 or 6 runs for the game and old Josh ‘Blue Light Disco’ Curran on the other side dropping balls left and right. Their forwards smashed us for 5 minutes then put the cue in the rack. No big bad bombs from Burton, no offloads to advantage, they were average.
Individuals:
If i was in the points game, I’d give 3 points to JAC. He lays so much ground work with his enthusiam. His hit ups are strong and defensively he is awesome. Supports his centre every week – no matter who it is.
Jnr had a strong game, Alot of people would give him points, i would hope he would decline them after his lack of effort last week as a leader.
Volkman had a great first 60 minutes and ball struggled to find him in the second half.
Penisini was very good with his ruck work. His defence remains diabolical.
Joash – Someone finally told him to look where he passes. He still had a few clangers and he looks awkward looking where he passes, but its a start..
Guymer is a trooper. What a shock – Walker back to tbe bench made a difference.
On to Manly next week. Today means nothing if we go back to a performance like last week at Manly.
Stunning.
The ‘86 team need a coaching role, I hope Ryles was taking notes on how to motivate
Volkman played the best game of his life, I would like to see the same team fielded next week
It was funny to see the same guys who stepped out the tigers winger in the front row again, good on them
Well done boys, I can wear the merch again
Was not expecting that win I didn’t even turn it on until the second half !
Eels shock you when least expect it
Volkman played well and is a better 6 and our Jnrs stood their ground, JDB also played nicely
Good to finally see the eels just running hard and straight and tackling hard
Way too sideways in other games and too soft, yesterday much better contact both sides of ball
Wow still can’t believe it 🤣
Oh come on Muz, that game was never in doubt 😜
As Gus would say, what better way to spend a Sunday afternoon. The basics of football re-visited with application and grit. But for a couple of short cuts and defensive bloopers, you would have thought ‘right there, that’s the blueprint for top 4 form’..but you have to do it consistently. I like the way guys you suggested going forward, that player mix should be continued, it’s like a scientific trial, you don’t know if it’s successful until you test it, spot the kinks ,eliminate and improve until it meets standards. You don’t go back to what clearly wasn’t working. I would be honing in on ‘why did we improve out of sight defensively?’ Unfortunately you would have to write a book and name names, and mention 6 Agains. Sounds like aRoly-Poly gig.
The defensive performance was largely down to changes in personnel that were forced on us; de Belin very tough for the first twenty minutes – best player on the field in that passage I thought; Toni Mataele coming up with some very heavy hits, including putting a Dog’s bench second rower out of the game, while coming up with 100% tackle efficiency, Volkmann for Pezet, (and there’s no need for me to make the obvious comment) Pryke getting his chance and coming up with a remarkably tough performance including 100% tackle efficiency, Kelly, the original Mr Rocks and Diamonds showing remarkable strength to come up with 61 post contact metres – lots and lots to build on including the presence of several outstanding performers who are, along with Apa Twiddle, not contracted for next year.
It would be really nice to get that sorted out before Gus and Mal and The Panthers swoop.
As others come back, how much do we change the team? One thing for sure Kelly is not a winger. Should we consider his swapping positions with Penisini? Will, by the way, had 8 recorded tackle busts yesterday – he is a very, very strong man.
Good thoughts Noel. We’ve all had our views on the who, what and why’s,yesterday was a great catalyst for improvement. I think there are so many factors to consider.
Interesting question…who on the sidelines fits into a different picture of best 13 or 17?
I’ve always thought we have had the wrong mix of forwards on the park, there are blokes who just shouldn’t be on the park together. The old force field analysis, how the use of strengths and weaknesses can decimate or propel…1 + 1 can equal 3 or the exact opposite. Having exhausted myself mentally, there is no substitute for running and tackling hard.
While it’s a win we’ll very much enjoy remembering now we think of next Sunday. I’d leave the starting back row as it is; I’d start Mataele for his damaging defence and bring Luca off the bench; I’d keep Pryke on the bench and give him more time; I’d bring Russell back on the right wing; major decision – Kelly or Nanva at left centre; Kelly I think on the basis of experience though Araz Nanva certainly performed and did himself a lot of good yesterday.
Isn’t it nice to be actually looking forward to the next match rather than dreading it?
Kelly did let a try through in the first half.
Rocks and diamonds for sure.
He had a better game on the wing than any he has played at centre.
Twidle deserves another run, and Russell is due back, with Samrani 2 weeks later.
There will be a fight over spots for sure.
I can’t help but feel that it may be blessing to have the better defensive options in Guymer and Williams on each edge going forward. Yes it’s important to have punch on the edge but Kelma and Gideon have been particularly poor defensively. I think Gideon is still a work in progress.
Also – there is no way Pezet scores that try that Ronnie scored yesterday – he’s just not much of a running threat. We have Moses to organise. The only reason I would ever be picking Pezet in this footy team is if Moses is injured. Just like the Storm did with Hughes.
I really like the look of Nanva.
In a weird way I think that team we picked yesterday was stronger than the one we picked round 1.
I agree with your comments about Pezet
In the long and storied history of The Parramatta Eels the signing of Pezet under the circumstances of the signing will remain one of the inexplicable mysteries. If when fit he replaced Ronald Volkmann the punters should riot.
yeah agree with all this, I think you might be right about it being a stronger line up than our round 1 team.
Though I do wish we could have Jamaine, Bailey and Jordan back in the squad. Pezet should be there as back up for Mitch, not as our 6.
Personally I’d like to see Lorenzo get a shot at some point but Volkman should own that 6 at least till Iongi is back.
Carlos, the three you name need to be fitted in when available; who misses out is the question. I have particularly high hopes for Jordan Samrani, who is our long term right centre in my opinion. Will on the left or maybe the right wing.
Yes, how do we instil yesterday’s spirit and meld it with the talent on the sideline when only 13 can run on. Big Sam T belongs in the line up too. I’ve always thought that Moretti needed to simplify his game, he runs and tackles hard but due to injury and a rushed-style of participating he has never had the constant football to find his strengths.
Well done Parra. Agree with all the comments above so no need to repeat them here. Instead I want to pay a compliment to the referee. How refreshing to see a game refereed with common sense and with a minimum of 6 agains and few penalties. Sure he let a few things go but he let the players decide the game. Did the lack of set restarts distract from the game as a spectacle,definitely not. PVL please take note. I’m not confident but lets hope we see this continue.
Thanks for the show gents.
The next best thing to a Parra win is a Bulldogs loss. Yesterday we got both. The icing was two former Bulldogs scoring tries.
Junior was enormous yesterday, I thought he was the man of the match by a stretch.
I didn’t think the big man had that in him anymore, boy was I wrong.
I don’t think I’ve ever been so happily surprised by a result. Honestly I’d rate this as one of the clubs best ever wins.
I have to admit after last week I was so despondent and convinced our season was over that I almost didn’t even watch this game!
Disappointed to have missed the reaction stream for this game will catch it up later!
My 3 2 1s
3 Will Penisini – I think it was his best ever game for us.
2. Junior – His best game for us this year. He was the dominate forward on the field today.
1. Could be any Eel but I would give it to Saxon for such a strong debut.
take aways
Club should immediately offer a top 30 contract and 3 year deal for Nanva. He’s exactly what we need now, a young outside back with some ticker that we’ve developed.
Kelly’s best game for us his assist for the Joash try was something special. But they need to fix his defence near the line, he looks totally lost. If Russel is to return next week I think he’s got to be the guy to make way for him.
Our edges looked so much better I had thought Kelma and Kitone being out was a disaster but honestly I now think I would prefer Charlie and Jack holding those spots going forward.
JDB proving his value in a game without too many 6 agains. I thought he and Juniors hard-nosed defence in the first 20 was exactly the thing we’ve been missing in the last few rounds.
Moses needs to chill with the captains challenges lol, that was mad throwing it away so early in the game, in a non critical moment, where there was no way he could’ve been sure of where Tracy’s foot was relative to the sideline. Luckily it didn’t affect the result.